Insert for supporting a hat in a box



March 26, 1957 H. KIRBY 70 INSERT FOR SUPPORTING A HAT IN A BOX Filed May 21, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l 32 I INVENTOR.

I HE RY L. K BY ATTORNEY March 26, 1957 H. L. KIRBY 70 INSERT FOR SUPPORTING A HAT IN A BOX 2 SheetsSheet 2 Filed May 21, 1954 Z Us 42 INVENTOR.

HENRY L. KIRBY FIG. 6

ATTORNEY United States Patent INSERT FOR SUPPORTING A HAT IN A BOX Henry L. Kirby, Upper Darby, Pa., assignor to John B. Stetson Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application May 21, 1954, Serial No. 431,413

Claims. (Cl. 206-9) In the mens hat industry, from one to three hats are packed and shipped in a box and, except for those displayed on the shelves in the retail establishment, the rest of the hats in stock are usually kept in the boxes in which they :are received.

In order to position the hats in the box it has heretofore been proposed to use various inserts which receive and support the hats in superposed relationship.

One object of the invention is to produce an improved insert for a shipping or storing box of the type set forth.

Despite all requests for careful handling, a box of this type is, nevertheless, tumbled about considerably and the hats in the box, unless adequately held in position within the box will be dented or otherwise damaged.

It is therefore a further object of the invention to produce an improved insert whereby the hats will be adequately supported whether the box be placed right side up, whether it be placed on its side, or whether the box he placed upside down.

A still further object of the invention is to produce an improved insert which will fit within a shipping or storing box whether the box is ioval, round, square, and so on.

In conventional boxes of this type, the hat is supported by the relatively narrow edge of an annular insert which engages the junction of the brim with the crown of the hat. This, in time, distorts the brim relative to the crown and makes re-blocking of an unused hat necessary or, at

least, desirable.

It is therefore a still further object of the invention to produce an improved insert whereby the hat is supported in a manner to prevent the distortion referred to.

The hats stored in a box of the type described are of different sizes and the salesman has to reach into the box and bring the hats out for trial or inspection. Because of the fairly tight fit of the insert in the box, it is difiicult for the salesman to take the hats out without using both hands, and then, only with the risk of distorting or crushing a part of the hat, a part of the supporting insert or both.

It is therefore :a still further object of the invention to produce an improved insert whereby the salesman can easily remove a hat with the use of one hand only and without in any way denting the hat or damaging any part of the box or of the insert.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a vertical sectional view showing a hat box provided with inserts of my invention and showing the manner of packing three hats of different sizes in said box.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the lowermost insert of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the two upper inserts of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an exploded view of the insert of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view showing the first step of making the lower or conical part of the insert of Figs. 3 and 4.

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Fig. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary, vertical sectional view, illustrating the manner of removing one of the upper two hats shown in Fig. 1.

Figs. 7 to 10 are top plan views of the upper half of the insert of Fig. 4 showing the same adapted for use in boxes of different shapes.

Each of the inserts shown in Figs. 3 and 4 includes a conical member 10 adapted to support a hat and a platform 12 for supporting the conical member 10. The conical member 10 is formed from the blank 16 which is shown in Fig. 5 and which is slotted inwardly from its opposite arcuate edges to form relatively narrow fingers 18 and relatively wide fingers 20. The opposite end of fingers 18 and 20 are curled outwardly against themselves as best shown in Fig. 4. Each blank 16 is provided with a tab 24 at :one end thereof and a number of slots 26 at the other end thereof. By engaging tab 24 with one or the other of slots 26, the blank of Fig. 5 can be formed into a frusto-conioal member 10 having an upper cushioning ring 28 and a lower cushioning member 30, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Each blank 16 also has a number of spaced slots 32 adapted to be engaged by tabs 34 which are struck up from the inner edge of a central hat receiving opening 36 formed in the center of platform 12.

The platform 12 of Figs. 3 and 4 has a number of legs 38 which are hingedly connected to the outer edge 40 or" the platform so as to be foldable downwardly and brought to bear against the vertical wall 42 of the outer box as best shown in Fig. 1.

At least one leg of each platform 12 of the platform of Figs. 3 and 4 is provided with a tab 44 which is hinged to the body of the platform as at 46 and to the leg as at 48. The sides 49 of tab 44 are wholly severed from the adjacent material.

The insert 10 of Fig. 2, which is the lowest one in the assembly of Fig. 1 may be identical with that of Fig. 3, or the bottom fingers 20 and the legs 38 may be omitted from the conical member 10 and the platform 12 respectively, platform 12 is supported by the relatively rigid, unslotted bottom portion of the conical member.

In actual use, a platform 12 is assembled to the conical member of Fig. 2, by passing tabs 34 through slots 32, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and the assembly is placed on the bottom of a shipping box as shown in Fig. 1. It will be noted that the shape of the platform 12 will correspond to the shape of the box so that the periphery of the platform will engage the side walls of the box. A hat 11 is then placed in position .as shown in Fig. l, with its crown depending into conical member 10 and with the junction of the brim of the hat with crown supported by the relatively large surface area of the upper cushioning member 28. This prevents marking and prevents distortion of the brim of the hat relative to the crown which would result if the brim of the hat were to rest on a relatively sharp edge. Next, a platform 12 having legs 38 is assembled to a conical member of Fig. 4 and this assembly is placed in the box with the legs 38 resting on the platform of the assembly therebelow and abutting the walls of the box. A second hat is now placed in position and the operation is repeated in connection with the third, or uppermost hat, in the box of Fig. 1. In addition, it will be noted that the bottom cushioning ring of each assembly is close to the brim of the hat mounted on the assembly immediately therebelow. By this arrangement, if the box should be placed upside down the brirns of the hats will come to rest on the large surface area cushioning rings 30 which will afiord adequate support without the marking and the dis tortion which would result if the hat were not so supported. As will be best seen from Fig. l the upper cushioning member 28 hugs the hat at the junction of the brim with the crown. This prevents rattling of the hat. But, it will :also be noted that, because the fingers 18 forming ars sro cushioning ring 22; are relatively thin, they are highly flexible so that while the total sum of their pressure over the surface of the hat is enough to hold the hat firmly in place the pressure exerted by any one finger or group of fingers at any portion of the hat is not enough to mark or to mar the hat. At the same time, the conical shape of insert 10 provides room for receiving the hat at the top and provides a wide base support.

The hats packed in a box are of difierent sizes, with the largest hat at the bottom and the smallest hot at the top. According to my invention, when one or" the upper hats is to be removed from the box, the salesman reaches into the box and, with his thumb, he presses on tab 44 and collapses it from the normal position shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 4, in which it forms a continuation of the surface of the platform and of the leg to the indented solid line position of Fig. 6. Then with the thumb engaging the inwardly indented tub, and with one or more fingers engaging the inside of the crown of the hat, the leg 3% and tab 4 are further moved inwardly, or indented, to the broken line position of Fig. 6 to disengage the same from the wall of the box. The hat and the supporting insert as sembly are removed as a unit. This can be done with one hand and without any tugging or pulling on the hat itself or on its supporting insert. By making the hat supporting member 10 of a frusto-conical shape, only part of the weight of the hat is supported from the rim and the rest of the weight is supported by frictional contact between the curled fingers 18 and the rounded junction of the rim with the crown of the hat. By making fingers 18 long and thin, a flexible and yielding engagement between cushioning member 28 and the hat is assured. The yielding character of fingers l8 imparts to cushioning member 25 a refined adjustability which is not otherwise attainable and which is in addition to the adjustability afiorded by engaging tab 24 with one or another of holes 26.

It will thus be seen that I have produced an improved insert for supporting a hat within a box in such a manner that the hat is not marked or distorted, and that the legs 38 of the inserts can be made to fit sufiiciently tightly within the box, to prevent rattling or displacement, while at the same time permitting easy removal of a hat and its insert. As above stated, this is rendered possible by the provision of collapsible tab 44 which permits insertion of the thumb to a grasping position with respect to the index finger, all of which can not be done if the edge of the pedestal 12 had continuous tight engagement with the inside :of the box. By my arrangement, collapsing tab 44 also moves the corresponding leg inwardly as shown in broken lines in Fig. 6, thus loosening the engagement between the insert and the side wall of the box. By making conical member 10 of a flat blank the cost of moulding it is avoided and by providing tab 24 and slots 26 the insert is made adjustable to different sizes so that the insert need only be made in one size for use in packing hats of different sizes.

What I claim is:

1. An insert for supporting a hat in a box said insert including a body member having a central opening therein through which the crown of a hat may pass, and at least one leg extending radially from, and hingedly connected to the periphery of said body member, the central portion of the leg near its junction with the body member and the corresponding portion of said body member being severed along lines parallel to, and located inwardly of the sides of said leg to form a tab which straddles the junction of the leg with the body member and which is collapsible with reference to the plane of the body memher and to the plane of the leg to form a fingerhold.

2. An insert for supporting a hat in a box, said insert including a fiat body member having a central opening formed therein and adapted to fit snugly within the box, spaced legs depending from the periphery of said body member for frictionally engaging the inside of the box and for resting on the flat body member therebelow, a frusto-conical hat supporting member insertable through said central opening and having transverse slots formed therein substantially midway of its height, tabs extending radially inwardly from the edge of said central opening and engaging said slots to suspend said annular member partly above and partly below said flat body member, at least the upper edge of said annular member being slotted to form long and relatively narrow fingers, said fingers being curled outwardly to form a flexible, yielding ring of a size frictionally to engage the crown of a hat passed therethnough, the height of each of said legs being greater than the height of said annular supporting member below said flat member whereby the lower edge of an annular supporting member will be spaced upwardly from the brim of a hat carried by the conical supporting member therebelow.

3. The structure recited in claim 2 in which the lower edge of said annular member is also slotted to form narrow fingers which are curled outwardly to form a ring for yieldably supporting the brim of a hat therebelow only when said box is turned upside down.

4. A hat package comprising a blank insert of frustoconical formation, the smaller end of the cone blank being slotted longitudinally of the cone to form fingers, the fingers being curled upon themselves into a ring edge around the smaller end of the cone, means axially suspending in spaced relation a plurality of said inserts in a pack-age with the smaller ends up, a hat positioned on the upper end of each insert with the hat crowns passing downwardly through the smaller ends of the inserts, the hats being supported by the insert fingers bearing against the crown and brim, the degree of flare of the insert being substantial wherein the lower end of the insert is ofiset radially outwardly from the upper end of the adjacent insert and wherein said lower end of the insert is normally in spaced-relation to the brim of the hat supported by said adjacent insert.

5. The package of claim 4 in which the larger end of the insert is also slotted into fingers and the fingers curled upon themselves for yieldingly supporting the hat brims upon inversion of the package.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,109,722 Weiss Sept. 8, 1914 2,334,392 Diehl Nov. 16, 1943 2,540,992 Rickus Feb. 6, 1951 2,706,555 Radile Apr. 19, 1955 

